Not an easy day for businesses along Newton's Needham Street

Wednesday

Jul 16, 2014 at 4:09 PMJul 16, 2014 at 11:25 PM

Jenna Fisher and Jonathan Dame@NewtonTAB

It was anything but a normal day for business owners along Newton’s Needham Street.A water main burst in front of National Tire and Battery at about 8:30 a.m., first flooding – and then buckling -- a portion of the roadbed.Emergency responders closed the busy shopping district to all vehicle traffic from Columbia Road to Winchester Street by about 9:30 a.m. Needham Street was also closed to pedestrian traffic between 111 Needham St and Winchester Street.Employees at National Tire made it into work this morning, but because of the blocked off road they were effectively closed.Leroy Campbell, who works on commission at the tire store, was sitting in the waiting area with a coffee in hand."The city just called and said cars and people can’t come or go," Campbell said. "It’s going to be a quiet day."Gerri O'Donnell and her sister Maureen Sullivan were trying to have lunch at the Farm Grill and Rotisseria, a popular Greek restaurant at 40 Needham St. When they found the road blocked, they parked at McDonald’s and walked down the street -- only to find the restaurant closed."It’s a shame," said O'donnell, who was resigned to eating at McDonald’s instead.Alexi Iliades, a manager of the family run business, said Wednesday is one of the Farm Grill’s busiest days."There’s usually a full dining room, and a line out the door," he said gesturing to the empty café behind him. He and his father sent the staff home when they realized no cars or pedestrians could make it in as construction workers dug up the water main in front of the restaurant.Illades said they had to cancel three large catering orders."We’re pretty annoyed right now," he said.The flooding and roadwork even took a toll on businesses outside the immediate area of the water main break.Katherine Dejesus was taking the bus from Roxbury to her job at Chipotle this morning when the bus driver reported the news of the water main break."I got off at the Green [Line] station and had to walk all the way back," she said. It’s a little more than a mile to the Newton Highlands T stop to Chipotle, where the bus normally drops her off.A manager from McDonald’s on Needham Street said his building had no plumbing issues and was operating as usual. But Needham Street Cleaners on the other side of the roadway had no running water."So basically we’re open, but we’re closed," said owner John Tsiroyannis.The police told him that the street would be closed down for as few as four hours or it could take days for things to get back to usual.Tsiroyannis said a normal day he sees a steady stream of people in his shop."It’s busy pretty much every day," Tsiroyannis said. "But now, it’s a ghost town."Paul O'Malley, facilities supervisor at Trip Advisor, said he had to manually shut off toilets in his building because they were filled with dirty water and malfunctioning."It's brown water," he said. "It's nasty."O'Malley was trying to figure out whether his company's 700 employees needed to be sent home.Some businesses were operating without plumbing issues but with very few customers."Obviously it's screwing us because nobody can get in or out," said Dave Ambler from New England Mobile Book Fair.Ambler said the bookstore wouldn't come close to breaking even for the day."They’re not letting any traffic through, so we’re just sitting around," said Chris Bronchuk at the Mobile gas station where he said he’d only had a spattering of walk ins."Nothing you can do."He looked outside at the empty parking lots and no one at the pumps."Boring," he said.